Reciprocable slidable gate with rotating slide element

ABSTRACT

A slidable gate mechanism for controlling teeming of material from a bottom-pour vessel, and a method of controlling teeming. The closure element is a disk which is mounted for rotational movement in a linearly reciprocable tray. The disk has a teeming opening on its central axis movable into alignment with the vessel outlet, and an imperforate area movable under the outlet to close it. Each time the outlet is closed, the disk is indexed to present a fresh portion of the imperforate area to the outlet, thus prolonging life of the disk.

United States Patent [1 1 Shapland et a1.

RECIPROCABLE SLIDABLE GATE WITH ROTATING SLIDE ELEMENT Inventors: EarlP. Shapland, Champaign, 111.;

James T. Shapland, Pittsburgh, Pa.

Assignee: United States Steel Corporation,

Pittsburgh, Pa.

Filed: Aug. 3, 1972 Appl. No.: 277,830

US. Cl 222/1, 137/329.05, 222/512, 222/561 Int. Cl B22d 37/00 Field ofSearch 222/512, 561, DIG.7, 222/1; 137/329.05

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS Brookfield 222/DIG. 7'

2,791,814 5/1957 Villela 222/DIG. 7

Primary ExaminerRobert B. Reeves Assistant Examiner-David A. ScherbelAttorney-Walter P. Wood [5 7] ABSTRACT A slidable gate mechanism forcontrolling teeming of material from a bottom-pour vessel, and a methodof controlling teeming. The closure element is a disk which is mountedfor rotational movement in a linearly reciprocable tray. The disk has ateeming opening on its central axis movable into alignment with thevessel outlet, and an imperforate area movable under the outlet to closeit. Each time the outlet is closed, the disk is indexed to present afresh portion of the imperforate area to the outlet, thus prolonginglife of the disk.

7 Claims, 4 Drawing Figures Patented Oct. 9, 1973 F/GI 3 SheetsSheet .L

RECIPROCABLE SLIDABLE GATE WITH ROTATING SLIDE ELEMENT I This inventionrelates to an improved slidable gate mechanism for controlling teemingof material from a bottom-pour vessel and to an improved method ofcontrolling teeming.

Although our invention is not thus limited, our gate mechanism andmethod are particularly useful when applied to a metal-teeming vessel,such as a ladle or tundish. It is known to equip such vessels witheither a linearly slidable gate or a rotatable gate for controllingteeming, as shown for example in James T. Shapland U.S. Pat. No.3,352,465 or Lyman US. Pat. No. 3,430,644 respectively. A linearlyslidable gate may be either of the reciprocable type, as shown inShaplands Figures 1-3, or of the slide-through type, as shown inShaplands Figures 4-6. A reciprocable gate has both an orifice and animperforate area, either of which may be positioned under the vesseloutlet, the former to permit teeming, the latter to close the outlet.The intention is that each such gate may be used several times to openand close the outlet before the gate must be replaced, but therefractory of the imperforate area wears rapidly where it is exposed tohot metal at the outlet, and replacement soon becomes necessary.Slidethrough gates are either orifice gates or blanks, one of whichdisplaces the other to open or close the outlet. New gates must beinserted for each operation, and sometimes this is inconvenient. Arotary gate has a plurality of teeming openings and imperforate areastherebetween. This is a costly arrangement, since a large plate orseveral plate sectors with multiple openings must be used. Most rotarygates do not permit throt tling of the pouring stream, that is, onlypartially opening the vessel outlet.

An object of our invention is to provide an improved slidable gatemechanism which overcomes the foregoing problems, that is, areciprocable gate which presents a fresh portion of its imperforateareaunder the vessel outlet with each closing.

A further object is to provide an improved gate mechanism which embodiesa rotatable closure disk within a reciprocable tray, and means forindexing said disk with each closing to present a fresh portion of theimperfrorate area under the vessel outlet.

A further object is to provide an improved method of controlling teemingof material from a bottom-pour vessel wherein we use a reciprocablegate, but present a fresh portion of the imperforate area of the gateunder the vessel outlet each time we close the outlet.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a partly diagrammatic longitudinal sectional view of a portionof a bottom-pour vessel equipped with a slidable gate mechanism inaccordance with our invention; 7

FIG. 2 is a vertical section on line IIII of FIG. 1; FIG. 3 is ahorizontal section on line III-III of FIG. I; and

FIG. 4 is a horizontal section similar to FIG. 3, but showing a portionof the disk broken away and the gate in position for teeming.

FIGS. 1 and 2 show a portion of a bottom-pour vessel which includes ametal shell 10, a refractory lining 12, and a refractory nozzle 13 fixedwithin the bottom wall. A mounting plate 14 is fixed to the bottom wallsurrounding the nozzle. The vessel is equipped with our novel gatemechanism, but otherwise may be of conventional construction.

The gate mechanism of our invention includes a housing 17 which hasoutwardly extending flanges l8 and 19 along its sides attached to themounting plate 14 with bolts 20 (FIG. 2). The top and bottom faces ofthe housing have openings 21 and 22 respectively. A tray 23 is mountedin the housing for linear reciprocable movement. A double-actingfluid-pressure cylinder 24 (shown only diagrammatically) is fixed to oneend of the housing and contains a reciprocable piston 25 and piston rod26 connected to tray 23. The interior of the housing has stops 27 tolimit movement of the tray toward the right, as viewed in FIGS. 3 and 4,while the end wall of the housing limits movement toward the left.

A refractory closure disk 28 is mounted on tray 23 to rotate on avertical axis, and at its side edges overlaps flanges l8 and 19 ofhousing 17. The ends of the tray have upstanding arcuate flanges 29 and30 which confine the disk. The bottom of the disk carries a cylindricalpouring tube 31, which projects downwardly through an opening 32 in thebottom of tray 23 and through the aforementioned opening 22 in thebottom of the housing 17. The disk and pouring tube have a teemingopening 33 which extends vertically along their control axis. We inserta refractory top plate 34 in the opening 21 in the top of housing 17overlying disk 28. The top plate has an orifice 35 aligned with theopening in nozzle 13. Tray 23 has a plurality of spring housings 36within which we insert respective compression springs 37. These springsact upwardly against the bottom of disk 28 and thus urge the disk intotight relation with the top plate 34, and the latter into tight relationwith the lower end of nozzle: 13.

The outer circumference of disk carries a metal ring 40, which hasinternal detents 41 or equivalent engaging the disk to prevent relativerotation therebetween. The outside of ring has a plurality of ratchetteeth 42, conveniently spaced 22-9: from one another. A pawl 43 ispivoted to the upper face of flange 18 of the housing. A spring 44 urgesthe pawl into engagement with the ratchet teeth.

According to our method of controlling temming, when we wish to teemmaterial through nozzle 13, we operate cylinder 24 to move tray 23 anddisk 28 to the right from the position shown in FIGS. 1 and 3 to theposition shown in FIG. 4, thus aligning the teeming opening 33 withorifice 35. When the parts move in this direction, the pawl 43 slidesover the ratchet teeth 42 and disk 28 does not rotate. When we wish toclose the nozzle, we operate the cylinder to move the tray and disk tothe left back to the position shown in FIG. 3. Now the pawl engages oneof the teeth 42 and indexes disk 28 clockwise through an angleequivalent to the spacing between teeth. Such indexing places a fresh'Our mechanism also enables us to close the vessel outlet only partiallyto throttle the pouring stream.

We claim:

1. A slidable gate mechanism for attachment to a vessel which has anoutlet in its bottom wall for teeming material therefrom, said mechanismcomprising supporting means for attachment to the vessel, a closureelement, means mounting said element in said supporting means for bothlinear reciprocable movement and rotational movement with respectthereto, said element having a teeming opening and an imperforate area,means for moving said element linearly selectively to a position inwhich said opening is aligned with the outlet to permit teeming andpositions in which portions of said imperforate area are under theoutlet to close the outlet, and means for rotationally indexing saidelement to present a fresh portion of the imperforate area to the outletas the outlet is closed.

2. A mechanism as defined in claim 1 in which said mounting meansincludes a tray linearly movable with respect to said supporting means,and said element includes a disk mounted in said tray for rotation on avertical axis with respect thereto, said teeming opening being on thecentral axis of said disk.

3. A mechanism as defined in claim 2 in which said indexing meansincludes a ring carried by the outer circumference of said disk, spacedapart ratchet teeth on said ring, and a pawl mounted on said supportingmeans cooperable with said teeth to allow said disk to move to aposition in which said opening is aligned with the outlet withoutindexing the disk, but to index the disk as it moves in the oppositedirection to close the outlet.

4. A mechanism as defined in claim 1 in which said supporting meansincludes a housing having outwardly extending flanges adapted to bebolted to the vessel and openings in its top and bottom, said mechanismfurther comprising a top plate located within the opening in the top ofsaid housing and having an orifice to be aligned with the vessel outlet.

5. A mechanism as defined in claim 4 in which said mounting meansincludes a tray linearly movable with respect to said housing, andcompression springs mounted in said tray and bearing against saidelement to maintain said element in a tight relation with said top plateand said top plate in a tight relation with the vessel.

6. The combination, with a bottom pour vessel having a nozzle in itsbottom wall, and a mounting plate fixed to the bottom wall surroundingsaid nozzle, of a slidable gate mechanism attached to said mountingplate for controlling teeming of material through said outlet, saidmechanism being constructed as defined in claim 1.

7. A method of controlling teeming of material through an outlet in thebottom of a vessel, said method comprising linearly moving areciprocable closure element between a position in which a teemingopening in the element is aligned with the outlet, and a position inwhich an imperforate area of the element is under the outlet to closethe outlet, and rotationally indexing said element with each operationcycle to present a fresh portion there of to the outlet.

1. A slidable gate mechanism for attachmEnt to a vessel which has anoutlet in its bottom wall for teeming material therefrom, said mechanismcomprising supporting means for attachment to the vessel, a closureelement, means mounting said element in said supporting means for bothlinear reciprocable movement and rotational movement with respectthereto, said element having a teeming opening and an imperforate area,means for moving said element linearly selectively to a position inwhich said opening is aligned with the outlet to permit teeming andpositions in which portions of said imperforate area are under theoutlet to close the outlet, and means for rotationally indexing saidelement to present a fresh portion of the imperforate area to the outletas the outlet is closed.
 2. A mechanism as defined in claim 1 in whichsaid mounting means includes a tray linearly movable with respect tosaid supporting means, and said element includes a disk mounted in saidtray for rotation on a vertical axis with respect thereto, said teemingopening being on the central axis of said disk.
 3. A mechanism asdefined in claim 2 in which said indexing means includes a ring carriedby the outer circumference of said disk, spaced apart ratchet teeth onsaid ring, and a pawl mounted on said supporting means cooperable withsaid teeth to allow said disk to move to a position in which saidopening is aligned with the outlet without indexing the disk, but toindex the disk as it moves in the opposite direction to close theoutlet.
 4. A mechanism as defined in claim 1 in which said supportingmeans includes a housing having outwardly extending flanges adapted tobe bolted to the vessel and openings in its top and bottom, saidmechanism further comprising a top plate located within the opening inthe top of said housing and having an orifice to be aligned with thevessel outlet.
 5. A mechanism as defined in claim 4 in which saidmounting means includes a tray linearly movable with respect to saidhousing, and compression springs mounted in said tray and bearingagainst said element to maintain said element in a tight relation withsaid top plate and said top plate in a tight relation with the vessel.6. The combination, with a bottom pour vessel having a nozzle in itsbottom wall, and a mounting plate fixed to the bottom wall surroundingsaid nozzle, of a slidable gate mechanism attached to said mountingplate for controlling teeming of material through said outlet, saidmechanism being constructed as defined in claim
 7. A method ofcontrolling teeming of material through an outlet in the bottom of avessel, said method comprising linearly moving a reciprocable closureelement between a position in which a teeming opening in the element isaligned with the outlet, and a position in which an imperforate area ofthe element is under the outlet to close the outlet, and rotationallyindexing said element with each operation cycle to present a freshportion there of to the outlet.